TV Talk: Pittsburgh-filmed ‘Forked’ debuts at PIFF; local chef makes EatThis.tv pilot

With advances in digital technology and cameras, anyone can make a TV pilot these days. Getting it distributed is a greater challenge, but two indie projects with Western Pennsylvania ties are having a moment.

‘Forked’

Writer/actor Sarah Goeke first got inspired to make her web series “Forked” while performing in playwright Molly Smith Metzler’s “Cry It Out” at City Theatre in Pittsburgh in 2020, just before Metzler hit it big scripting “Maid” for Netflix in 2021.

“When I was doing (‘Cry It Out’), it’s all about women and their relationships,” said Goeke, a Missouri native now living in New York. “Having a female writer makes a huge difference when you’re fleshing out a character.”

All six episodes of locally filmed “Forked” (total running time of all episodes: 47 minutes) will screen at the Pittsburgh Independent Film Festival at 2:25 p.m. Saturday, followed by a Q&A, at Parkway Theater & Film Lounge, 644 Broadway Ave., McKees Rocks.

Dark comedy “Forked,” which won best series at New York Cinefest, stars Pittsburghers Laurie Klatscher (“Outsiders”) and Greg Lehane as the parents of Goeke’s character, identified in the series only as “Forked” in an homage to the lead character in “Fleabag” (who went by Fleabag). Laurie and Greg’s son, Nick Lehane, appears as a dragon puppeteer. Other local actors include Moira Quigley and Julianne Avolio.

In “Forked,” Goeke’s character is a newly sober, formerly repressed woman who returns home to visit her parents, where they discover she’s using her vocal performance degree to record audiobooks of dragon erotica. A steamy recording session is featured in the show’s opening scene.

Filmed near Millvale over six days in 2023, Goeke said “Forked” was inspired by her own upbringing in a “very religious town” that resulted in her having “a strange relationship with desire.”

“I used alcohol to make myself more comfortable with feeling desire and I became more dependent upon it,” Goeke said.

Now sober for six years, like her “Forked” character, Goeke also voiced audiobooks of dragon fantasy erotica. “For a lot of women from the Midwest, (dragon erotica) is an entry point. … While it is ridiculous, it is a safe entry point for people who grew up with the idea that it’s morally an evil thing to feel desire or to have any sexual thought or feelings.”

Goeke praised City Theatre for making the local filming of “Forked” possible, offering discounted artist housing and even some props for use in the series.

While it is rare that indie productions get picked up by major media companies for distribution, it can happen. Just this week, indie comedy “Middlehood,” about a woman’s midlife crisis, debuts Friday on the free, ad-supported Plex streaming channel.

“The hope is we could expand ‘Forked’ to a half-hour comedy series,” Goeke said. “My main focus is making sure people in the Midwest can see it. Sometimes things like this get buried in niche parts of the internet, so if it’s YouTube (where ‘Forked’ ends up), it’s YouTube.”

Local chef on EatThis.tv

Benjamin Bishop, a 48-year-old professional pastry chef who lives in Aspinwall, filmed a pilot last month in Queens, N.Y., titled “Sweet Precision with Chef Benjamin Bishop” for a streamer called EatThis.tv, available on Roku, among other spots.

Bishop’s 30-minute pilot, making a chocolate torte, is posted to YouTube and did well enough that EatThis.tv offered him the opportunity to film a 10-to-12-episode first season, provided Bishop can find some sponsors to help cover the production cost. Bishop is considering the streamer’s offer.

‘The Pitt’ filming again

Production on season two of Max’s Pittsburgh-set ER drama “The Pitt” began Monday on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Calif., where the bulk of the series films. Production is expected to return to Pittsburgh to film for a week in September.

The new season will stream in January 2026.

‘The Waterfront’

Writer Kevin Williamson’s most successful projects all take place near a body of water — “Dawson’s Creek,” “I Know What You Did Last Summer” — and now he adds to those with a title that’s just as explicitly wet: Netflix’s “The Waterfront.”

Now streaming its eight-episode first season, “The Waterfront” marks Netflix’s latest effort in the soap genre following the spring release of “Ransom Canyon.”

But there is a sameness to these shows that renders them various levels of “meh” — watchable enough, but unessential.

Williamson’s “Waterfront” focuses on the Buckley family, the economic driving force in Havenport, N.C., for decades. Owners of a fishery, marina and restaurant, they’re pillars of the community whose power, by the conventions of TV soaps, is about to crumble.

Patriarch Harlan (Holt McCallany, “Mindhunter”) is an alcoholic with a bum ticker who spends more time sleeping with his mistress than his wife, Belle (Maria Bello), who manages the family’s restaurant.

Son Cane (Jake Weary) tries to run the company’s businesses, but he lacks his father’s cutthroat nature. Buckley daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist, “Supergirl”) is an addict in recovery who’s lost custody of her son (Brady Hepner).

The whole family is a mess and that mess grows following the events of the premiere, which includes a few unexpected twists. But overall, the whole endeavor feels overly familiar. McCallany owns the screen anytime he appears, but the story wasn’t original enough to inspire viewing beyond the first two episodes.

Channel surfing

National Geographic Channel renewed Stanley Tucci’s “Tucci in Italy” for a five-episode second season. … The cable contraction continues as Warner Bros. Discovery shuts down minor networks HBO Family, ThrillerMax, MovieMax and OuterMax effective Aug. 15. … Nationally, Nielsen says for the first time ever in May more viewers watched TV via streaming services than cable and broadcast TV combined. … Spinoff series “NCIS: Tony & Ziva” premieres Sept. 4 on Paramount+.